TRYING TO WORK TOGETHER – First assistant town counsel David Houghton, left, and James Connors, attorney for Tim Ferreira, speak to the licensing authority about Ferreira’s recycling business in Hyannis.

Requested technical change squeaks through

The soundtrack for this week’s licensing authority hearing on a change from sole proprietor to corporation ownership for Ferreira’s Recycling could have been P.D.Q. Bach’s “Echo Sonata for Two Unfriendly Groups of Instruments.”

P.D.Q. is the “last and least” of the master’s sons, created by composer Peter Schickele as a long-running musical gag. The long-running battle between Tim Ferreira and town officials is significantly less amusing.

Although the June 4 hearing was held to review a dry technical manner, it was an opportunity to stress how thin is the line Ferreira must not cross in operating his recycling business near the Hyannis water system’s Maher wells.

The hearing came on the heels of a Barnstable Superior court case that followed a January explosion at the Old Yarmouth Road location as a vehicle was being cut up for recycling. A small amount of fuel leaked out, but did not reach the well field, which is less than a thousand feet away.

In the court judgment, Ferreira agreed not to have any vehicles containing hazardous fuels brought on-site for recycling, repair or dismantling.

Deb Krau, chair of the Hyannis Water Board, said that adding the language to the license, which includes unannounced inspections, was a welcome step but useless if the terms are not enforced.

She noted that the town’s 2009 site plan review for the property imposed the same standard, which clearly was not observed in the January incident.

The Maher wells, Krau said, “provide 25 percent of the water used in Hyannis. This is a huge risk.”

Attorney James Connors, representing Ferreira, said the conditions were enforceable, and that failure to meet them would “precipitate contempt of court.”

Det. Lt. John Murphy, a Barnstable Police liaison to the board, said his department would do the enforcing and report violations to the board.

That didn’t sit well with authority member Gene Burman. “I have some great reservations regarding this license,” he said. With the great number of businesses in town, he said, it shouldn’t be the responsibility of the police or the town to provide such a high level of scrutiny. He noted also a “history of problems” with this license.

Burman, who usually makes motions for action, declined to do so. The task fell to alternate member Richard Boy (Paul Sullivan was absent), who joined chairman Martin Hoxie in voting 2 to 1 to grant a license in the name of the new corporation.

Minutes of the executive session at which the business was discussed may be reviewed and released at the authority’s next meeting.